Purpose – This paper aims to explore the critical factors that contribute to the success of institutional repositories worldwide. Previous research indicates that there is little agreement surrounding what constitutes a successful institutional repository. Design/methodology/approach – Possible key factors were extracted from literature review and responses from expert panels. A web-based survey questionnaire forming a total of 69-item statements was developed. The questionnaire, when pilot-tested, was found highly reliable. The questionnaire was then distributed to 322 institutional repository managers, who are representative of the population, via the OpenDOAR email distribution service. Data collection ended in four months, once the sample volume of usable questionnaires reached 295, which is 91.6 per cent response rate. Findings – The results of the factor analysis indicate the possibility of 46 variables under six factors being important for the success of institutional repository implementation. These six factors are “Management”, “Services”, “Technology”, “Self-archive Practices”, “People” and “Resources”. Practical implications – This study has empirically tested and consolidated the factors which are important in institutional repository implementation worldwide and documented them as critical success factors. Originality/value – It also frames questions about the possible value of developing some guidelines or standards related to success factors to be able to monitor the deployment of institutional repositories.

Purpose -A significant amount of digital repository research and development activity is taking place worldwide, which calls for the investigation of issues identified as critical to the development, management and sustainability of these repositories. The purpose of this paper is to establish a comprehensive set of critical success factors (CSFs) that would enable successful digital libraries implementation. Design/methodology/approach -The design of this study is exploratory in nature due to lack of previous research about CSFs in digital library projects. The paper builds the research framework to find CSFs for digital libraries initiatives by collecting possible factors from literature on CSFs of information systems; and feedback from ten experts who have had experience in digital library research and development as well as implementation, through e-mail interviews. Six dimensions in the enterprise architecture framework (namely motivation, resource, people, process, location and time) needed to create the environment in which digital delivery can be effective and sustained, are mapped with the CSF established from the literature. Findings -The results revealed six dimensions of CSFs and 36 potential success factor statements contributed by the study participants. Based on these findings, this paper postulates that successful deployment of a digital library implementation may depend on this set of success factors. The identification of these factors has important implications on digital library development. Originality/value -There has been no comprehensive study on the success factors of digital libraries in the library and information science context, as such, no investigation of the factors in some real-life contexts of digital library activities. It may help digital library start-ups to understand what sources and services they need to develop to make their applications successful in an already very populated network. Both researchers and practitioners in the field of digital libraries may value the novelty and results of this study.

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate postgraduate students' research behavior and requirements to come up with essential components to support research collaboration in a personal digital library (PDL). Design/methodology/approach -This study was conducted using a questionnaire survey method along with a few follow up interviews. A structured questionnaire was circulated among postgraduate students of the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT) of the University of Malaya (UM). A total of 100 participants answered the questionnaire, and 15 students participated in the follow up interview. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. Findings -This research presents the benefit of collaboration in research. In addition, by reviewing collaborative support tools, it was inferred that the ability to share data and resources is the most important step in developing tools to support collaboration. Moreover, the important role of a virtual research environment (VRE) and social network to support research collaboration was examined. Furthermore, a closed-ended questionnaire survey together with a follow up open-ended survey was deployed among postgraduate students of CSIT of UM, to elicit students' collaboration requirements in research. Originality/value -Few attempts have been made to study about collaboration services within PDL systems and their impact on students' research. This paper proposes a prototype model of a PDL and highlights the importance of sharing e-resources as the prominent research collaboration activity among postgraduate students.